This morning I woke up and got ready for my first day at the school where I'll be a language assistant. It took me awhile to find it, in fact, I ended up having to call a cab, because this school is on the opposite side of Cabra. I was completely confused, but that's easy for me. I have no sense of direction, really, until I've lived somewhere for a long time (sometimes not even then -- I need better short-term memory!).When I got there, I wasn't sure what kind of impression I would make on the rest of the professors, but they made me feel completely at ease. Every once in awhile I would slip into my Spanglish because I was confused about whether I should speak in English to get them acclimated or if I should acclimate MYSELF to everyone else. What to do, what to do -- ? ¡Combinación, por supuesto! I gave them all my blog URL, so if any of you are reading this, I hope you are enjoying practicing your English! Es oportunidad perfecta, ¿de verdad?
During a break, I went to a bike shop with the P.E. teacher, David. So many people have been offerin
g to take me, but I was not-so-secretly thinking "thanks, but no thanks." This guy seemed like the perfect candidate, though, so off we went in his coche para mirar las biciletas. It took me a long time to figure out what was the best opción, but I finally decided to buy a pink bike for 140 euro. That may sound expensive, but at first they offered me a 660 euro mountain bike! Hell no! I told him look, I'm a foreigner and I just need something to get me from point A to point B, thank you, and it needs to have a bunch of speeds and good brakes so I can get up and down those Ithaca-sized hills!!! I'm really pleased with it, though, and I think that because it's pink it is less likely to be thieved, but we'll see...yikes. I got a lock for it and I also can remove the seat, if need be. I feel like my dad riding a bike, it's fun, though. I just hate it when guys roll down their windows and stare at me. Yes, I'm a foreigner, leave me alone!!!! ¡Ay, por Dios!After school, I hit up a fruit store and got some fresh produce and ate lunch. Rice cakes with j
am, mushrooms, and a fiber bar thing. Weird combo? Whatever. For breakfast I had my dried fruit and some kind of flake cereal in my strawberry banana yogurt. It was so good. Tonight, I'm not sure what we're doing, but hopefully something cheap. I'm not in the hole or anything, but close. My roommates and I are only paying 90 euro a month a piece for our apartment, which is unheard of, it's SO SO cheap. We're lucky, what can I say? We just went out shopping and I got a pair of brown ankle boots and a purple jacket. I don't like purple so much, but whatever. I have too much blue and neutral colors in my closet.Tomorrow I wake up at the same time and go to school and meet more of the students. Correction: I haven't met ANY of the students, they just stare at me and think extranjera. Gracias a Dios I'm not blonde, because they get stared at like they have two heads! I'll just have to get used to it.
Also, when I got back to my apartment, I contacted some of my Belgian relatives. Did I mention there is a Belgian girl living in Spain, in our program? It was so nice to meet her, she sounds like my relatives when she speaks English. I almost gave her tres besos because that's what the Belgians do. Hopefully Kim will teach me some Dutch so I won't have to be wide-eyed with raised eyebrows everywhere I go. Luckily, all the Belgians speak about half a dozen lan
guages, so it's not really THAT difficult to get around, I just feel like I impose upon everyone all the time, when I interact with them. They're great, I can't wait to see them -- there's a huge list of people I need to see: Dirk, Marlene, Stephanie, Sven, Sophie, Marie, Victor, Sophie, Eddy, Rita, Sebastiaan, Louis, Annalene, Burt, Lotte, Darlene, Hans, Sylvie, the Schaubroeck family, the Noppe family, the Adam family, etc! Soooo much extended family there, and they're all my Grandma Boberg's cousins descendents. We share the same great-great grandmother. My Belgian relatives emigrated in 1918, I believe, right after World War I. Their plan was to get rich and go back, but uhhh, that didn't happen. Woops. By the way, in the pic, Kim is on the right. I think that was taken in Holland?Back to my Spanish experience ~ we're about to go out again, but I'm not sure. Probably to get tapas and vi
no. I'll post more pictures tomorrow, my camera is being testy right now. It's the battery, actually -- I can convert my battery charger, but it's so big that it won't fit in many of the sockets which is so obnoxious. Some of the outlets have extensions, and I have to use those in order to charge it. Ay. I'm going to check if it's charged again and take it with me.That's all for today, adiós.
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3 comments:
is that building your school? Cool.
No no no! That's in the plaza Vieja and it's really far away from my school. I don´t have pic's of my school yet. I will post them eventually, but first I have to get stronger and not take much on my back getting up the hill because it's seriously large and in charge.
Hey, just thought I'd say hi! Love the pictures. It looks very pretty and you seem to have made great friends. The bike is very pink! Interesting color for you but I am glad you have something to get from a to b.
Anyway. I know you have been emailing Steve. It has been interesting to hear both your emails.
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